UPDATE: Panda, Scutaro out of the World Baseball Classic

UPDATE: Puerto Rico just defeated Venezuela 6-3 in San Juan. That eliminates Venezuela, which means Pablo Sandoval and Marco Scutaro should rejoin the Giants in a few days.

Puerto Rico’s win put it and the Dominican Republic into the second round in Miami, so that means Angel Pagan and Santiago Casilla advance.

ORIGINAL POST: The top three hitters in the Giants lineup, Angel Pagan, Marco Scutaro and Pablo Sandoval, are in the World Baseball Classic. So are relievers Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo, plus starter Ryan Vogelsong.

And the first Giants player to get to the next round is . . .

Catcher Tyler LaTorre, who will start for Italy against Vogelsong and the United States tonight.

Italy’s ticket to Miami was stamped when Canada trounced Mexico 10-3 in today’s early game, which featured a hellacious brawl in the ninth inning.

“I told you not to sleep on us,” LaTorre told me during batting practice just now. “We expected it. Playing that first game and beating Sergio was a huge thing for us. We knew we had the bats. We knew we had the arms. It was just a matter of going out and showing it.”

Italy goes into tonight’s game at 2-0. Mexico finished 1-2. Mexico’s last hope to advance requires a mathematical miracle. It needs to finish in a three-way tie at 1-2 with the United States and Canada and win a tiebreaker. To do that, the United States would have to beat Canada by a gazillion runs.

Which means there’s a good chance Romo will rejoin the Giants in the next couple of days.

The United States will advance if it beats Italy tonight and Canada tomorrow. The U.S. could lose tonight and still advance, but the math would be tough.

Meanwhile, the Mexico-Canada game ended with quite a fracas. Canada was leading 9-3 in the ninth when catcher Chris Robinson bunted for a hit. That ordinarily is a no-no, but not in a tournament in which run differential is a principal tiebreaker. Mexico third baseman Luis Cruz, a Dodger, appeared to tell pitcher Arnold Leon to hit the next Canadian hitter, Rene Tosoni. Mexico might have been piqued at Robinson already because of a pair of hard slides on the bases.

Leon missed twice but drilled Tosoni in the the back with the third pitch, and both benches emptied. There were some real punches thrown, but it did not appear Romo was involved in any of the hostilities. He was in the scrum, wearing a hoodie over his cap and looking real, well, intense. You can judge for yourself in this photo.